Their fans responded with monetary donations, new gear was quickly found and the group went on with a planned tour. Something, though, doesn’t feel right, guitarist and bassist Kristian Dunn said.

“We’re not using the gear we’re used to, so it’s a little bit of a challenge. Imagine if you opened your mouth and you started talking in someone else’s voice. You could still talk, form words and communicate with others, but it just doesn’t feel right,” Dunn said. “That’s the best comparison to use.”

Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty will headline Saturday night at Isis Restaurant and Music Hall in Asheville, N.C., with two other acts.

They will continue to play their experimental rock, even as it doesn’t sound like they are accustomed.

“It’s taken us 10 years to get this dialed in and now we’re having to start all over,” Dunn said.

If you listened to the group without knowledge of its membership, you’d swear there were four, five or six musicians filling the sound.

By looping sounds, Dunn is able to create a full sound with his double-necked guitar/bass. He typically has a dozen pedals at his feet to work with.

El Ten Eleven released its fifth album, “Transitions,” in November and a remix of the record was released earlier this month.

Music from the first four records can be played on stage exactly as it is on the record, while there are a few tracks on “Transitions” that can’t be played live.

“I’d need four arms,” Dunn said.

The group has gotten better at its craft since it began performing together in 2004.

Now, the music has become more second nature, even with the heavy looping that is done.

“We don’t have to think about, technically, how to pull it off like we used to,” Dunn said. “When we made the first record we were trying to figure out what the hell we were doing. Now we can concentrate on the music itself.”

The music speaks for itself, as El Ten Eleven has never had a vocalist. It helps, Dunn said, when they tour overseas.

“We’ve never had a singer. If we had a singer and lost them, then it would be ‘oh my god, what do we do,’” he said. “We’ve been doing instrumental music the entire time and doing well. It doesn’t seem to be a handicap. Maybe if we had a singer in the band we’d be a lot bigger, or smaller, who knows.

“In overseas markets, like Japan, we do really well and it might be because there’s no English words for people to be confused with.”

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